Don't Fear
by Teen Tyrant
Summary: Months after the end of the Makluan invasion, Tony and Pepper are an official couple, and times are good. But when strange things begin happening at the Morningside Cemetery, Pepper begins to suspect that there is something sinister going on with the spooky old mortician who runs the place. Now, Pepper must convince her friends of what is going on, and figure out a way to stop it.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: To everyone in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures fandom: Greetings! I am Teen Tyrant, and yes, I'm the one who is married to prominent IMAA fic writer, Miss Starfire. This story is my first entry into the IMAA community, and while I have done some editing and minor writing for Miss Starfire when assisting with her stories, I am quite nervous about posting my own story. This story is technically a crossover with one of my favorite horror series: _Phantasm_. It is based on the original movie, and I did not place the story in the crossover section of this site because it is more a case of the plot of _Phantasm_ being adapted into an IMAA story than an actual crossover. I chose to write this story in the spirit of the Halloween season. Enjoy!

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Chapter 1

Patricia "Pepper" Potts hummed to herself as she strolled in through the secret entrance to the armory located within the derelict Makluan temple. She was in a very good mood, which was actually her normal disposition, but for the past couple of months she had had a few reasons to be even more cheerful than normal. She was actually on her way to see one of those reasons right now.

Entering the armory lab, she saw Tony Stark, her best friend and now, officially, her _boyfriend_ , making repairs to his Iron Man armor. He was leaning over the open pod containing the suit, his back mostly to her and he clearly had not heard her enter the temple, although it was very easy to see why. In addition to his customary red shirt and blue jeans, the young man had a welding mask covering his handsome face and a welding torch in hand which was making a loud hissing noise as he applied its flame to his armor.

The girl smiled to herself, set her purse down and walked up close to him, making sure to keep just out of his line of sight, limited as it was by the welding mask. She decided to make use of his lack of awareness to her presence and make a move she had not done around him in quite some time. After a minute or so, Tony pulled the torch away from the armor, turned it off and set it down where it would not get in the way or cause any harm. This was perfect for Pepper, as she could now make herself known and not worry about anything unfortunate happening with the torch. Before Tony could lift up the front of the welding mask, the redhead stepped quickly into his field of view.

"Hi!"

His reaction was instantaneous, hilarious and predictably adorable. He cried out in surprise and stumbled backward a few steps, one hand clutching his chest as he began breathing hard, the other pulling off the mask and dropping it to the stone floor.

"Pepper?!"

The girl gave him a wide, toothy smile and held her hands behind her back, leaning forward just a little to make herself seem coy and charming.

"Hey, Tony," she said in an innocent tone that was unclear of whether she was playing around or seriously not aware that she had done anything wrong. The boy scowled at her, clearly not amused.

"Pepper! You scared the daylights out of me! What do you think you're doing? If I'd still had that torch in my hand, I might have– " He was cut off as she launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him as strongly as she could, knowing that his Extremis-enhanced physique would feel no discomfort from the pressure.

Feeling the redhead's body close to his, embracing him with her warmth, caused most of Tony Stark's irritation to fade away. Grumbling quietly, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back in a way that made it seem as if he was doing so grudgingly, but they both knew it was not so.

Pepper then lifted her gaze to his face, smiled sweetly at him, then leaned in and pressed her lips against his. Tony was again caught off-guard, but this time in a much more pleasant fashion. He could count the number of kisses they had shared between them on one hand, and could use the other hand to count the number of days that had passed since this action had been introduced into their new relationship as a couple. He still was not quite used to such a display of affection, but he certainly was not complaining. The last of his anger at her scaring him a moment before slipped away as he returned the kiss for a few tender moments before they separated.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Tony," Pepper told him with sincerity. "But I couldn't help it. The moment was too good to pass up, and you look so cute when you're taken by surprise."

Tony scoffed at her calling him _cute_ , still unable to cope with such comments from a girl he had known for two years and had never thought he would hear speak such words in regards to him.

"Whatever, Pep," he said before planting another kiss on her forehead, squeezing her in his arms once more before releasing her and moving back over to his armor to examine his work. "What are you up to, anyway? Aside from trying to give me a heart attack?"

Pepper smiled sheepishly and took a seat in one of the chairs, watching him as he inspected the armor.

"Nothing, really. I'm _so_ bored! There haven't been any major supervillain attacks since the Makluan were blown up, and since we've still got a month left before going to college, I've got nothing to do!"

All of this was said at a very fast pace and in a high-pitched whine. Even a year ago, Tony would have found this behavior of Pepper's annoying. Now, however, he could not help but smile a little at her ability to complain about not having to go to school for a two month stretch and the city not being under attack.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, Pep. But, me personally, I'm glad that we've finally gotten a break."

Realizing that his armor repairs were exactly as he wanted them to be, he triggered the pod to go back to its storage alcove along the temple wall overhead. He then walked over to an empty chair and took a seat next to his girlfriend.

"Besides, you've probably jinxed us now that you've said that. Gene will probably show up now and try to finish what he started in taking over the world."

This was said with a scowl on his face, and Pepper recognized the sign that he was thinking about the antagonistic past he had with the Mandarin. She reached over and grabbed his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"I'm sorry to be complaining about our good fortune. It's just annoying that I had to wait so long to get my own armor, and then you made it for me and I've only had a chance to use it on two big missions. Those little robberies and stick-ups we've been dealing with are too easy, no fun at all! Ugh! I'm sorry, I'm complaining again. We should go see a movie or something, maybe walk through Central Park. Something other than hanging around the armory all day where I can be reminded that I've barely gotten the chance to use my armor."

Tony shook his head a little, amazed even now that Pepper could talk so much and switch from one subject to another with each breath she took. He checked his pod to see if he had anything important on his calendar for the rest of the day, and after determining that he did not, he turned to Pepper and shrugged.

"Sure, why not. I haven't been to the park in ages anyway, it'll be good to stroll through it again."

Beaming, Pepper leaped to her feet, grabbed both of the inventor's hands and pulled him up from the chair with more force than one would expect from someone her size. She then wrapped both of her arms around Tony's upper left arm and began leading him toward the temple exit, partially leaning her head on his shoulder as she did so.

"Perfect! C'mon, then! We can ride there on my new scooter," the redhead sing-songed.

Tony shook his head. "I still don't know why you wanted me to make you a scooter. You've got your own armor, and yet you want to cruise around New York on that silly little thing."

"Hey! It's cute, it's safer for the environment, and it can seat two, just like I asked. Thank you for that, by the way. You can sit behind me while I take us to the park. Oh! And while we're walking through the park, maybe we'll come across one of those ice cream stands. It's been _forever_ since I've had some. Ooooh, strawberry-kiwi-lime with chocolate sprinkles, here I come!"

Tony Stark's look of combined bewilderment and adoration would have made any bystanders laugh out loud.

xxxXXXxxx

Harold "Happy" Hogan tried not to look as uneasy as he felt while he and the gorgeous blonde on his arm continued to follow the concrete path. The evening so far had turned out pretty well up to this point, all things considered. He had been very surprised when his current date had showed up at the basketball court he had been shooting hoops at earlier. He had been doubly surprised when she had asked him if he had any plans for the evening, and if he would mind getting a bite to eat and then accompanying her on an evening stroll. And yet, here he was enjoying a nice evening with the ice queen herself. What was it about girls who had never shown any interest in him at all suddenly asking _him_ out?

"I'm really glad you asked me out, Whitney," he said earnestly, before looking around at their current setting. "But, don't you think we could go somewhere a little more, uh… romantic-like?"

Whitney frowned in confusion and appeared slightly hurt. "What's wrong, Happy? Aren't you enjoying yourself?" She clung tighter to the brawny young man's arm, closing her eyes and resting her head against his shoulder, which it was barely able to pull level with. Happy's eyes twinkled and his uncomfortable expression changed to a grin at the show of apparent affection.

"No, it's not that. I really am enjoying spending time with you, at last. But, it's just," he again looked around at the expansive stretch of land which the path they were following wound through.

There were no other people around, especially at this hour, since they were technically here illegally. But, Whitney had wanted a thrill, and Happy was not going to say no to her after she was finally showing an apparent willingness to be closer to him. The lack of other people at the late hour made the place even more unnerving than it normally would be. There were only a few trees here and there, with the only other major features being lots of grass and many, _many_ vertical and horizontal slabs of stone spaced in even patterns in all directions.

"It's just that graveyards give me the creeps, ya know?" As a large, physically powerful and imposing figure himself, he hated showing any sign of weakness in front of a girl, especially one as hot and unattainable as Whitney Stane. But his old childhood fear of cemeteries was settling in. Even now, he could feel as if the eyes of the dead were upon him as he walked through their domain.

Whitney shrugged and looked around at the various headstones. "Doesn't it excite you, being here where we shouldn't be, _when_ we shouldn't be? Nobody knows we're here right now. It's just between us and the dead, and they aren't saying anything." All of this was said in a come-hither voice and with a flirtatious raising of the eyebrow.

Happy grinned again, completely ignoring the unsettling statement and focusing more on how the blonde said it.

"Wow, Whitney, you sure are more relaxed and, uh, intense since the last time I saw you. Where did you go, anyway? You disappeared, like, months ago."

The girl looked down at the ground as they continued to walk through the cemetery. "I just needed to get away for a while. Clear my head and all that. After my dad… well," her expression became crestfallen and Happy began to regret asking. "I just needed to get away for a bit. But I'm back and I'm feeling much better. And I wanted to see a friendly face." She again hugged his arm tightly, causing Happy to blush and silently congratulate himself.

 _Yup, still got it. All the ladies love Happy!_

The two walked for a little while longer, until Whitney pointed to a rather large tree in the middle of the cemetery, suggesting that they could stop and _rest_ beneath it… on the side that was hidden from the path. The look on her face told Happy that resting was not on her mind, and his grin could not have been wider. He took her hand and led her off of the path, zig-zagging between headstones, until they reached the tree and moved to the far side of it, sitting down and leaning their backs against its wide trunk.

Whitney continued to rest her head against Happy's shoulder, while the young man counted off a mental timer of when he would make a move. With the exception of the fact that they were in a cemetery, the setting was perfect; it was dark, the place was empty, nobody knew they were here, a warm but welcoming breeze was lightly blowing, and he was with a girl of supermodel quality. Everything was set for a great make-out session. He just had to be smooth about it.

"Say, Whitney?"

"Hmm," came her response, as she sounded as if she might drift off to sleep while leaning against his shoulder.

"I, uh… just wanted to tell you that, well, I've always liked you."

Whitney pulled her head away from his shoulder and looked up at him, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"I know you have, Happy. And I'm sorry that I mostly ignored you, or called you names when I did acknowledge you. You're such a sweet guy, and you've never done anything bad to me, unlike other guys I know."

Seeing an opening with the way she was complimenting him, Happy decided to go for it. He cleared his throat a little before speaking again.

"Well, uh, Whitney, I was wondering…" he threw in some hesitation to make himself seem vulnerable. Chicks really dug that kind of thing. "If it would bother you too much, if I tried to… kiss you."

At this, Whitney's smile widened and a playful gleam appeared in her eyes.

"Why, Happy, you read my mind," she said with in a teasing tone.

"Really?" Happy was surprised that she had been having similar thoughts.

"Of course. But, I think since you've been so nice to me by going out with me this evening, _I_ owe _you_ a kiss. So, why don't you just lean back and close your eyes," she shifted her position and rolled over in place, so that her knees were now on the grassy ground at the base of the tree, each knee planted on either side of his legs, which now ran under her as she more or less straddled him.

"Oh, awesome!" Happy nearly shouted in his enthusiasm, and then relaxed completely against the tree trunk, closed his eyes and puckered his lips, waiting for the magic to happen.

Whitney giggled a little as she brought up the knife that was hidden under her skirt and plunged it forward, stabbing through cloth, then flesh, straight into Happy's heart. The young man's eyes popped open and he uttered a gasp, more of surprise than pain. A moment later, his eyes closed again and his head drooped until his chin rested against his chest.

Pulling the knife free of his body, Whitney stood up slowly, the breeze blowing her blonde hair about her head. She stared down at the body with a look of satisfied accomplishment. In a space of time so fast that it was literally in the blink of an eye, the figure standing over the dead body of Happy Hogan was no longer Whitney Stane.

xxXXXxxx

It was never an uncommon sight for Tony Stark and Pepper Potts to be hanging out in the home of their mutual friend, James Rhodes. Even though Tony now lived once again at Stark Tower with his father, and he and Pepper could just as easily have gone there for the remainder of the day, the two still enjoyed spending time with the third member of Team Iron Man whenever they were not spending time alone together.

The Rhodes made both of them feel welcome anytime they were there, as Tony had practically been an adopted member of the family for two years, and Pepper's presence soon became so common that she was looked upon as an honorary family member as well, although her desire to spend her free time around two trouble-prone young men without having been considered a romantic item with either of them had been a headscratcher. Roberta Rhodes had been well aware of the crush the redhead had harbored for the inventor, but there had never been an indication that she had acted on it or that Tony acknowledged it. This had made her continued presence puzzling, even to the attorney. Knowing now that the three teenagers had secretly been battling criminals together solved that particular mystery rather quickly. And of course, now that Tony and Pepper were dating, the other odd thing about that whole picture was finally cleared up as well.

"I'm just saying, maybe instead of spending time making upgrades to your armor when there's no pressing need to, you should be making a backpack armor for War Machine," Rhodey reasoned as he drank a mouthful of milk to wash down one of the homemade cookies his mother had made for the three of them.

"Totally! You should definitely do that, AND make a backpack for the Rescue armor, too!" Pepper's predictable enthusiasm was followed by her taking a few bites of her own cookie.

Knowing that the two were double-teaming him, and further knowing that he hardly ever came out on top in an argument where neither of them was on his side, Tony sighed in resignation that they were not going to quit until he agreed to make both devices for them. He decided that he would skip his usual smart-mouthed retort and just go with the flow this time.

"Alright, fine. I'll try to figure out a way to get both your armors into backpacks as soon as I finish the upgrade I'm currently in the middle of with my own. Sound good?"

"Sounds reasonable to me," Rhodey replied, with a concurring nod from Pepper for good measure. "So, how was your afternoon date?"

Rhodey's remark caused Tony to cough a little on his cookie and a blush to break out on his face. He was still not used to the teasing his best friend would send his way regarding the fact that he was now dating Pepper. For her part, Pepper also blushed lightly, but maintained her composure otherwise, not really being embarrassed at the mention of her dating Tony.

"How'd you know we went out today?"

"Well," Rhodey smirked, "Nothing to do today, neither of you were here, at Stark Tower, _or_ at the armory. Doesn't take an IQ as big as yours to figure it out, Tony. So, where did you go?"

This caused the inventor to shoot a glare at his friend, and he was preparing to tell him to mind his own business, but Pepper had other ideas.

"We went walking through Central Park. It's amazing this time of year, and I've had so few opportunities to go there the last few years and just enjoy it. We took pictures in front of all the memorials, fed bread to some ducks, got some _divine_ ice cream cones," Pepper paused to sigh dramatically, although the two young men were pretty sure she also needed a moment to take a breath. "It was a wonderful day," and she shot Tony a wink.

Rhodey rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. "Well, I'm glad that Tony is doing a better job at being a boyfriend with you than he did with-" Rhodey stopped as he heard Tony take a sharp inhale of breath through his nose and Pepper frowned slightly. "Uh… She Who Shall Not Be Named," Rhodey finished.

That actually earned him a small grin from both of his friends and the moment passed, the three turning their attention back to their cookies and milk. It was a nice time for all three. The world now knew who they were, so there was no longer the pressure to keep secrets from people they cared about. They had just recently graduated from the Tomorrow Academy and would start college in a few months, taking away the additional pressure of keeping up with school, at least for now. No major villains had attacked recently, so the trio of heroes had not needed to risk themselves for a little while.

Yes, right now was a good time to simply enjoy the quiet moments in life with friends… or in the case of Tony and Pepper, friends who also happened to be a romantic couple.

The quiet moment among the three came to an abrupt end when Roberta Rhodes opened the door to her son's room and walked inside, the cordless house phone in her hands, an expression on her face indicating that she was bringing bad news.

"I need to talk to the three of you," she said gravely, her tone indicating that they were not in trouble, but that they would not like what she had to say. The three looked at each other, then set their glasses down, as well as their napkins upon which rested their cookies.

"What's wrong, Mrs. Rhodes?" Pepper was the only one who had the courage to voice the question, although if asked, she would admit that it had less to do with courage and more with despising moments that dragged on in anticipation when you knew that something bad was coming anyway. She just wanted the older woman to come out with it already.

"I've just received a call from the police. It's about your friend, Harold."

This caused the three teens' eyebrows to shoot up and for their jaws to drop, hearing that their mutual friend and schoolmate was the subject of a phone call from the authorities. Rhodey had to end the waiting this time.

"What is it, Mom? What's happened to Happy?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tony Stark knelt in front of his mother's grave, remembering the last two times he had attended a funeral. The most recent occasion had been for his father, although that had later proven to be premature. The slot next to his mother was empty once again, as the empty coffin that had been placed there for his father – as sometimes happened when there was no body for a person who was declared legally dead – had been removed after his return.

Tony hated funeral homes and cemeteries for this reason, and avoided coming to them except to pay respect to his mother each year. He particularly hated this one even more since the supposed passing of his father, but it was not just that. He felt uneasy here since the last time he had come to pay respect to his parents. Something had felt off about the place then, and it still lingered now.

He stood up from the marble floor, placing his hand on his mother's engraved name a final time, and then stood back. His mother was not buried outside in the cemetery, but rather inside the mausoleum, within the funeral home itself. With so many people living in New York City, there was not much room for graveyards, and Maria Stark, true to her philanthropic nature, had not wanted to take up a beautiful patch of land where another family could grieve in peace over the passing of their own loved one. She had instead settled to have her body interred within the marble walls of the enormous mausoleum, where many other expired residents also rested. Names were engraved over stone slabs set into the walls down many of the twisting, echoing halls of the place.

Tony turned away from his mother's name and began walking, intending to make his way back to the main room where everyone was waiting for the service. The heels of the shiny black shoes that came with the tuxedo he wore clicked upon the floor and echoed through the hall. As he came to a crossroads of hallways, he paused for a moment, trying to remember which way to take that would get him back to the service hall.

As he paused, he thought he heard a strange sound off to the side; an odd scratching, rustling, rasping sound. He turned his head down the hallway to the left, but could see nothing beyond the corner where the hall eventually turned. Frowning slightly, allowing the mystery of that strange noise to take his mind off of the depressing event that would soon be taking place, Tony Stark turned completely left and walked down the hall to the corner. He looked beyond, but saw nothing except more hallway with the names of the interred dead engraved all along the walls.

Shrugging, he headed back to the crossroads of the halls and continued along the path that he had intended to take before he had heard the noise. As he walked, he thought about what he was here to do today. He was to be a pallbearer for Harold "Happy" Hogan, his high school friend whose wake was taking place elsewhere in the building, and who would then be carted out to the cemetery afterward for burial. It would be the third time he had come to this funeral home for someone he had known.

The young man came upon one more hallway junction, the last one before he got back to the main hall in this enormous place, and as he was walking through it, he heard that noise again. This time, it came from his right, and he turned his head in that direction the moment he heard it. He saw, for the briefest instant, a flash of brown cloth, low to the ground, moving around the corner down the hallway on the right.

Frowning again, Tony immediately moved down the right hallway and to the corner. He turned and looked, but again it was just more hallway, this one coming to a dead end about fifty yards away, with no features other than the shining marble and the etched names of the dead along the walls.

The inventor shook his head and determined that the sorrowful events he was enduring today were getting to him. He settled on this as the explanation for seeing and hearing things as he walked through the massive mortuary, and as he was about to turn back around, a hand clasped down upon his shoulder.

"Ugh!" Tony yelped in surprise as he spun around, the hand releasing him as he did so. Standing before him was a tall, elderly-looking gentleman with gray hair, wearing an old mortician's tuxedo and black tie. Tony gulped from the surprise that he had been given from his sudden appearance.

"The funeral is about to begin… sir."

An intense stare and a single raised eyebrow accompanied the tall man's message. Tony calmed his fast-beating heart.

"OK," he said after a nervous gulp, nodded to the mortician and warily moved around him, heading back to the main viewing room and intending not to stop in this creepy place again until he had rejoined Pepper and Rhodey.

xxxXXXxxx

The three friends sat next to each other upon one of the pews in the viewing room, Pepper in the middle, holding one of her two best friends' hands in each of hers; Tony on her right, Rhodey on her left. The two boys wore tuxes, while the redhead wore a black blouse, jacket and skirt with black shoes. Each of them was currently lost in their own thoughts as they stared ahead. The Reverend had just finished making his speech, citing the same, tired old passages of the Bible and platitudes meant to bring some kind of comfort or hope to those in attendance. It did nothing for the trio of Team Iron Man. Around them, Happy Hogan's family members, as well as a great many of their classmates at the Tomorrow Academy, all stared straight ahead to the open casket; some weeping, some keeping their sadness inside, some bored.

Happy himself was looking peaceful, as was the goal of such showings. He was in a coffin that was able to fit his length, although it barely was wide enough to accommodate his broad shoulders. He was dressed in a tuxedo, his skin pale but unblemished, a slight rosiness to his cheeks from the makeup applied to them.

As the announcement was made that it was time, the crowd stood up, some of them moving towards the exit so that they could make their way out to the cemetery where the final part of the ceremony would commence. Tony and Rhodey were both going to be pallbearers for their departed friend; Pepper had no involvement in the funeral itself, and did not wish to. In fact, she was not going to stick around for the ending. She had had all she could bear already. With a sniffle, she hugged Tony and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, which he then returned to her.

"I'll see you after, OK," he said to her, squeezing her shoulders gently. She nodded to him, but remained uncharacteristically silent. She waved goodbye to Rhodey, then moved past Tony into the central isle and headed for the exit. Happy had been her friend, and she had even dated him for a short time, but the memories of her own mother's funeral were too painful for her to bear, even now. She had managed to sit through the eulogy, and walk up to Happy's open coffin and pay her respects to him, but it had taken all that she had to do so, and she could not bear to see him be put under. Perhaps Tony was strong enough to go through that after having gone through a funeral for both of his parents, but she was not.

As she began her exit from the funeral wing of the mausoleum, she spotted in the back row an unexpected face: Gene Khan. He locked eyes with her for a moment, gave a curt nod, and then exited through the double doors, getting lost in the sea of his former schoolmates. Pepper was surprised to see Gene here, as he not only had been incognito since the Makluan invasion, but he had despised Happy Hogan. She supposed that he considered it a matter of honor to pay respects to someone he had known that had died so young and tragically. He probably was not going to stick around for the rest of the service, either.

Almost to the door, not able to move any faster due to the people shuffling out in front of her, Pepper noticed from the corner of her eye an older man, strikingly tall, standing in the back corner of the room; he appeared to be the mortician/funeral director on duty. He had longish gray hair that ended parallel to his jaw line, and possessed somewhat pale skin. He worn a black tuxedo and tie, and looked pretty thin, befitting his apparent age. He was standing with his hands held behind his back and did not appear to be watching the exiting crowd. Rather, his eyes were fixed rather intently on the casket and the on-display body that it contained. He was staring at it with the intensity of a hawk, as if waiting for the right moment to do something. She supposed that he must have been waiting to guide the five men who had volunteered to carry the coffin to its destination to move into place, so that he could direct them where to go.

Just before she reached the exit, the elderly mortician's black eyes seemed to move away from the coffin and stare straight back at the ginger's own hazel ones. The mortician raised a single eyebrow and appeared almost to smirk for a fraction of a second, before his attention returned to where it had been before. Pepper did not know why, but she felt a chill run down her spine from this odd little moment. She took in a deep breath of fresh air as she finally made it out the door, and she felt even more grateful than before that she would not be attending the rest of the funeral, although she did not know why that was.

Pepper headed to the place where she had parked her scooter, and began looking around at the wide graveyard that surrounded the mortuary. While the redhead would not be in the company of those who would witness Happy's burial, that did not mean that she was leaving completely. She made her way past the other vehicles that were gathered along the stretch of asphalt that ran along next to the mortuary, reaching her purple and silver scooter and placing the helmet upon her head. She hopped on the scooter, started the motor, and pulled away along the thin asphalt road.

Once she was sure that she was far enough away to avoid being seen, Pepper did something that she knew she should not, but she was not really in a state of mind for considering consequences today. She drove off of the path and onto the grass, carefully maneuvering between the hundreds of headstones that littered the landscape, taking great care to avoid actually riding over anyone's grave. She kept a look off to the side so that she could keep the funeral in sight. When she saw the hearse that was carrying the casket come to a stop, she also stopped, and turned the scooter's motor off.

As the ginger took off her helmet and shook her hair out, she thought she heard a strange sound off to the side; an odd scratching, rustling, rasping sound. She turned her head and looked around, but all she could see were dozens of headstones surrounding her, as well as a few nearby trees with their branches moving slightly in the calm breeze. Seeing nothing that could have made that sound, Pepper shrugged and dismissed it, then dismounted her scooter. She gently tipped it over and laid it down flat so that it would not stand out from a distance, taking from the carry pouch on the side her pair of high-caliber binoculars.

She lay down on her stomach, knowing that the grass was fresh and vibrant enough to avoid messing up her formal clothes, and put her binoculars to her eyes with her elbows resting on the grass. She could see through the lenses as the back of the hearse was opened and the casket pulled out. In addition to Tony and Rhodey, Happy's father and uncle, as well as his closest friend on the school basketball team, all held onto a side of the coffin, moving together to bring it into place, where it was suspended by ropes and a rectangular frame over the six-feet-deep hole that had been dug into the ground.

Pepper willed herself to keep her eyes from watering up, knowing that pretty soon, the casket that held Happy's body would be lowered out of sight and covered over with dirt, and it would be final; he would be truly gone forever, with even his remains eternally out of reach of anyone who knew him.

As she wiped away one small bit of moisture that built up in her left eye, she heard that strange sound again, behind her. She turned her head around, looking over all of the grave markers around her to see if anything stood out. For a brief moment, she thought she had seen something move. It had looked as if a piece of brown material sliding along the grass had moved behind one of the larger headstones.

"Hello," the redhead called out, wondering if perhaps someone was nearby, visiting a deceased relative perhaps, and was kneeling behind the headstone. When no reply was forthcoming, Pepper shrugged and dismissed it as having been some kind of small animal. What she had seen had probably not been a cloth at all, but the brown fur of some little creature – a squirrel, perhaps

She turned back to the site of the funeral and placed the binoculars to her eyes once more.

xxxXXXxxx

The service was over and people began to disperse, nobody present really wanting to witness the departed young man be covered over in dirt, including his family. As the crowd moved away, fresh cries of sadness rising into the air as they did so, Tony Stark remained, looking at the shiny casket a little longer. After a moment, he heard his best friend move up beside him and sigh. Tony sighed in return and turned to him.

"I just can't believe that it happened like this."

Tony shook his head and lowered his eyes to the ground between them. Rhodey nodded in agreement, looking like he was not completely present at the moment, mentally speaking.

"I know, man. It just doesn't make any sense. I mean, why? Why would Happy kill himself? And why do it in a cemetery, of all places, man?!"

Rhodes's aggravated tone denoted his confusion and denial over the details they had been given. According to investigators, Happy's body had been found three days ago, in this very same cemetery, just a few hundred yards from his final resting place. He had been found with a knife in his chest, which had cleaved his heart in two and killed him almost instantly. The police had concluded that there was no sign, nor indication of foul play, and so had ruled out the possibility of murder. Judging by the position of his hand at the time his body was discovered, it had been concluded that Happy had taken his own life.

This had been very hard for the large jock's three friends to take. Pepper had wept into the night, Tony had fought the urge to do the same, and Rhodey had seemed to come unplugged from the moment due to the shock.

"You want to head over to my place," Rhodey asked after a few more moments of silence between them. Tony shook his head, took a deep breath, and looked around at the graveyard.

"I think I'm gonna head to the temple and do some work on the armor. It'll keep my mind occupied."

Rhodey nodded his agreement, gave Tony a hang-in-there punch on the shoulder, and began walking towards his car.

Realizing that he was the last one present, other than the creepy old mortician who was standing a ways back behind one of the headstones, Tony gave a final nod to the casket that held his friend's body, then turned and began walking away.

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper watched her boyfriend walk away from the burial site, knowing that it was now time for her to go. Just as she was about to lower her binoculars, she noticed something odd and readjusted them. She watched as the tall, old man in the suit walked past the grave and toward the hearse that had brought the coffin out to the spot. She had figured that the tall guy would now lower the coffin into the grave and begin covering it with dirt. She supposed, since he was such a skinny and elderly fellow, he was going to call in some of the groundskeepers to fill in the grave, and had simply not had them be nearby during the funeral out of respect for the grievers.

However, as Pepper watched from afar, the hearse began to back up, right over the graves that were between the narrow driving path and Happy's coffin. None of the headstones were hit, but it was clear that the car was driving right over the graves themselves. Pepper shifted her view back in the direction where everyone had parked their cars to see if anyone was seeing this, but the last few cars were already pulling away slowly. Nobody else seemed to be around to witness this. Pepper knew that this was illegal behavior, and would likely anger surviving family members of those buried in the graves being driven over, as well as a few clergymen, at least. She continued watching so she could report as much as possible to the authorities.

Once the back of the hearse was only a few feet away from the coffin, the vehicle stopped and was left idling as the tall mortician got out of the driver seat and walked to the back of the hearse, opening up the rear compartment where caskets were held during transportation.

Pepper stared intently through the lenses of her binoculars, her knuckles starting to turn white as she gripped them tightly in concentration, paying as close attention as possible. After a few moments, when she witnessed what happened next at the burial site, the redhead slowly lowered the binoculars, her face marked with an expression of mingled shock, confusion, and disbelief.

"What the–?!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Tony Stark looked up from his work table in the Iron Man armory and in the direction of his phone, which he had set down before beginning to work. He saw that the call was from Pepper and answered it.

"Hi, Pep," he answered morosely, still feeling down from the funeral earlier.

"Hi, Tony," the redhead answered on the other end of the line. "Listen, Tony… I'm not going to be coming to the armory today. I… I just need some time alone. To think a while, you know?"

Tony closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his free hand, knowing perfectly well what she meant. While he would have liked to have her with him now, he knew that they would probably not really be able to talk about anything except what had happened to Happy, and the general topic of death. He definitely did not want that. It was better for them both to be alone for a little while and sort out their thoughts before meeting up to provide each other company.

"Sure, Pep. I understand. Call me if you want to talk, OK?"

"I will. Thank you, Tony. I hope you're OK, too. I know it must have been hard for you today. I'll probably see you tomorrow. Bye."

"Bye, Pepper," and with that the inventor disconnected the call. He immediately got back to work, to distract himself from the most recent loss in his life.

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper put her phone away and hopped on her scooter, making sure her snack pack was secure. She hated lying to Tony like that. Well, she did not exactly lie, but she had withheld the truth from him about why she was not coming in to see him today.

After seeing what she had seen at the cemetery once everybody in attendance at the funeral had left, Pepper had decided that she needed someone to talk to. Tony and Rhodey were already feeling as depressed as herself right now and she did not want to further burden them with her troubles. Gene had disappeared after the funeral, so that ruled him out. She did not want to talk to her father, or Roberta, or anyone outside her age range really, due to the fact that they would likely not believe her and would chalk what she had seen up to her mind playing tricks on her due to her sadness at Happy's passing. And considering how she felt at the moment, and will full respect to Tony and Rhodey being the great guys they were, Pepper felt that she needed female company for this.

This was why she was now riding her scooter upstate, to the more rural and secluded areas. Lacking any friends of her own gender back in the city, Pepper had decided to go see the one person who fit the criteria, whom she felt would be willing to listen to her and provide some support. And so, after a couple of hours on the road, Pepper stopped outside the front gate to the private grounds of a large estate. The name posted on the sign above the gate read: _Xavier Institute for Higher Learning_.

Pepper knew that Professor Charles Xavier enrolled mutant children into this school, in order to help them learn to control their powers and be able to integrate into human society in a positive manner, as well as provide a good quality education like an actual school.

Noticing a speaker box attached to the gate, and not certain what to do now that she was here, Pepper pushed the button on the box and waited. A moment later, a man's voice came through the speaker.

"How can we help you?"

"Uhm," Pepper hesitated, feeling a little nervous. "I'm Pepper Potts. Er, that is, I'm Rescue of Team Iron Man… from, uh, New York City… and, uhm…" Pepper hated stammering, as it was rare that she was at a loss for words. She decided to forgo formalities and get right to it. "I don't have an appointment or anything, but I'm here to see Jean Grey. I'd like to talk to her, if she's available."

There was no immediate response from the man on the other end of the line, and after a few seconds went by, Pepper began to wonder if perhaps they were checking on her identity. She could understand their caution, considering most of the world's prejudicial view of mutants. Much to her shame, Pepper herself had once had that view. Befriending Jean Grey had allowed her to get over it, and she supposed that was part of the reason why she felt she could trust her right now. How could you not trust a person who helped you get over a negative quality of yourself? After roughly twenty seconds had passed, the man's voice came through the speaker again.

"Come on in."

This was followed by the sound of the gate unlocking, and it then began to swing open. Pepper saw no mechanisms to indicate that it was being opened remotely, and she had to wonder if some mutant inside the property was using their unique gift to unlock and open the gate from afar. Pepper could not help a tiny shiver that ran down her back, but she ignored it. Compared to what she had seen at Morningside Cemetery earlier, such a feat was a parlor trick at best.

The ginger turned her scooter on and rode down the private roadway until she came to the front steps of the massive mansion. She turned the motor off and placed her helmet on the handlebars, looking up at the enormous house with awe. She then proceeded to ascend the steps toward the front door. A mere instant before her knuckles were about to rap upon the door, it opened and Jean Grey stepped out, giving her fellow redhead a wide smile.

"Pepper! It's so good to see you here," Jean said with sincere cheerfulness at seeing her friend. She stepped forward and embraced Pepper for a quick hug before stepping back. "What brings you here?"

"Well," Pepper felt hesitant. "I wanted to talk to you about something. I sort of had an _incident_ today, and I'm not sure if it really happened or what it means, or if it was just a trick my mind was playing on me. I was hoping you could help me sort it out."

After listening to this, Jean nodded and seemed to go into deep thought. Pepper wondered briefly if she was communicating telepathically with someone inside.

"Of course, I'd be happy to help in any way I can. Come on in," Jean moved aside to usher Pepper into the mansion, closing the door behind them.

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper felt extremely intimidated right now. She had been offered a drink and snack once Jean had invited her inside the school, and although she was not hungry, she had accepted a lemonade. Jean had then brought her into the private study of none other than Professor Xavier himself. The professor was currently on the opposite side of a round table from herself, with Jean Grey sitting off to the left of Rescue alter ego. Knowing that such a well respected figure as Charles Xavier, who was also one of the most powerful mutants on Earth, had taken an interest in hearing her concerns was quite an honor.

"So, Miss Potts, Jean tells me that you are seeking assistance in determining if something you saw recently actually happened, or if your perceptions may have been… questionable?"

"That's right, Professor," Pepper replied, amazed at how eloquent the professor was with his words.

"Well then, why don't you being by telling us what happened."

Pepper nodded, took another sip of her lemonade to wet her throat, and then clasped her hands together and rested them on the table top. She took in a deep breath, then began.

"It started a few days ago, when Rhodey's mother got a call informing her that our friend Happy had been found dead. The police ruled it as a suicide. Well, Tony, Rhodey and I were pretty shaken up by it. Happy was a good friend to all of us. I… I even dated him for a short while. He was kind of dim; a muscle-bound jock really, but he had a heart of gold underneath the testosterone. He was honestly a great guy, he didn't deserve to die so young, and we really couldn't believe that he would kill himself."

Pepper paused, knowing that she had a tendency to ramble a mile a minute, and wanted to give her hosts time to take in what she was telling them. She supposed that they could have just read her mind and gotten all the information they needed, but they seemed to be respecting her privacy and allowing her to verbalize the situation. Professor X nodded along, while Jean Grey reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Go on, Pepper. We're listening."

Pepper nodded at Jean, looked back to the professor, and continued.

"This morning was Happy's funeral. I attended the service inside the funeral home, but I didn't stay for the burial. I just couldn't. So, I rode my scooter into the cemetery and watched the service from afar with my binoculars. Once it was over and everyone started to leave, I was about to leave, too. But, before I did, something happened…"

 _Once the back of the hearse was only a few feet away from the coffin, the vehicle stopped and was left idling as the tall mortician got out of the driver seat and walked to the back of the hearse, opening up the rear compartment where caskets were held during transportation._

 _Pepper stared intently through the lenses of her binoculars, her knuckles starting to turn white as she gripped them tightly in concentration, paying as close attention as possible. As she watched, the tall mortician stood next to the coffin, looked around to see if any of the funeral attendees were lingering, and upon seeing that none were, he knelt to the ground. Pepper was confused at what he was doing, as he seemed to be reaching his right arm over the top of the coffin to the other side, and reaching his left hand down to the bottom, gripping it easily as the framework it rested upon was keeping it suspended over the rectangular hole in the ground that it was supposed to be lowered into._

 _Following along with every move, the redhead witnessed as the mortician then stood up straight, lifting the entire casket right up with him, then took a few casual steps to the back of the hearse, where he more or less tossed the coffin inside, pushed on the end a little to make sure it slid all the way in, and then shut the door._

 _The redhead slowly lowered the binoculars, her face marked with an expression of mingled shock, confusion, and disbelief._

" _What the–?!"_

 _She had watched earlier as five men – two of which had been full grown adults and the other three, while young men, were each in good physical shape – had all needed to work together to lift and maneuver that casket. It had to have weighed hundreds of pounds on its own, never mind with Happy's heavily muscled body resting inside. The tall, old man had lifted the coffin, body and all, as if it had been nothing more than a large pillow!_

 _In sudden fear, Pepper leapt to her feet and ran to her scooter, not bothering to brush the few blades of grass from her skirt. She threw on her helmet and started the motor, taking off with a roar immediately. She did not even bother avoiding riding over the graves in front of her, knowing only that she had to get out of the cemetery and far away from it as quickly as possible._

 _As she rode, she felt her control suddenly start to slip. The handlebars seemed to go rigid and refused to maneuver now matter how hard she tried to pull them to one side or the other. She then felt the scooter begin to wobble. Not knowing why, Pepper looked back to the site of the funeral, and despite the distance, she could see that the tall mortician was looking directly at her, watching her as she rode away. An instant later, it was as if some invisible force_ _ **pushed**_ _her scooter over, knocking her to the grassy ground._

 _Pepper rolled over twice before coming to a stop. She winced as she felt that she had scrapped an elbow and probably bruised a knee. Breathing hard from adrenaline, she stood up and hopped back over to her fallen scooter, her leg beginning to numb up. As she righted the machine, she looked back over toward the burial once again, but this time, the tall man was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she saw the hearse driving away, back towards the mausoleum. The redhead hopped back on the bike and took off again. She had no further interruptions as she left the graveyard._

"And after I got home and changed into my normal clothes, I called Tony and told him I wouldn't be coming in to see him today. He agreed, and I headed straight up here."

Finishing her tale, Pepper looked at her two psychic hosts. The professor and Jean both looked at each other and seemed to share a silent conversation, something that was very possible between them.

"So, do you think maybe that, that… Tall Man, might be some kind of mutant? Maybe that's why he was able to lift that coffin like it was nothing," Pepper had to know if maybe they knew something about it, considering that the faculty members here were on a constant vigil to document any discovered mutants. The professor and Jean both looked back at Pepper, their expressions unreadable.

"There is something else that has been troubling you lately, is there not, Miss Potts," the professor asked. Pepper took another sip of her lemonade before answering.

"Well… I've just had this really bad feeling lately. Not really _bad_ , actually, just… I don't know. I just feel like something's going to happen… with Tony. We're going to be going off to college in a few months and neither of us is going to the same place as the other. And now the whole world knows that we are superheroes," Pepper gulped down her anxieties. "I don't know why, but I'm afraid that I'm going to lose him somehow. That's part of the reason why I've wanted to spend more time with him lately, doing different things. It's not just because he's my boyfriend. I'm afraid that I only have so much time to be with him, either way."

Professor Xavier smiled kindly to the ginger, and Jean Grey gave her hand another reassuring squeeze.

"Miss Potts, I can't tell you if what you saw today was real or not. If I were to read your thoughts, I would know only what you know, only what you could recall seeing. If I were to inhabit your mind as you were seeing it, I could break down the filter your perception would have on what you were seeing, but when dealing only with memory, that is a far different task. For that, I am afraid that we can be of no help to you."

Pepper slumped in her seat a little as the professor held his hands together and pressed them against his lips, thinking carefully about what he wanted to do to provide some form of assistance to the girl.

"However, I can certainly understand the anxieties that a teenage girl on the verge of adulthood might have, particularly in regards to someone close to them. In this case, the fear of losing a young man whom you see as both the boy you love romantically, and who you also love as your best friend. Being on the cusp of starting a new chapter of your lives would put enough strain on you as it is, but to add in the recent death of another friend, and the fear of loss becomes magnified significantly. Your fears in this matter are not at all unusual or unnatural."

The professor turned to Jean and nodded once, which she returned. With a flick of her hand, all of the curtains in the room drew shut, cutting off the early afternoon sunlight and making the room noticeably dimmer.

"If you don't mind, Miss Potts, I would like to do something a little unorthodox now, that may be able to help provide some clarity."

Pepper frowned in confusion at the professor as he held a hand against the side of his bald head. She saw his eyes look away from hers and down at the top of the table between them. Pepper looked down and saw that a black box had appeared in the center of the table. It was the size of a shoebox and jet black, with a large hole in the front. Pepper jumped in her seat a little, startled.

"Whoa! How did you do that? Is that real, or are you projecting an illusion into my mind?"

Her questions were ignored. Instead, Jean Grey, speaking in a cold, monotone voice, gave her an instruction.

"Place your hand inside the box, Pepper."

Pepper looked at her, surprised by her odd tone, and then looked back at the large and very dark hole at the front of the box. It did not look very inviting. She looked back up at Professor X, who only nodded at her. Gulping in nervousness, Pepper slowly lifted her hand and reached inside the hole.

She immediately felt something seize upon her hand, a pressure that was very tight, but warm, and it instantly filled her with dread.

"Hey! Something's got my hand," she shouted.

"Don't fear, Pepper," Jean Grey said in that same creepy monotone.

"Hey, this is really starting to hurt! Make it let go of me," Pepper's panic was rising more by the second.

"Don't fear, Pepper," Jean said again, unhelpfully.

"Why won't it let go?!"

"Don't fear."

Trying to push the box away with her other hand was yielding no results, so lacking any other alternatives, Pepper closed her eyes and tried to calm down. As soon as she stopped struggling, the tight grip on her hand began to loosen. As it continued to grow more loose, the redhead was able to calm down more and more, until after a few seconds the grip disappeared entirely and Pepper removed her hand from the box.

Jean Grey flicked her hand again and the shades were removed, letting the sunlight back into the room. The black box on the table was gone.

"Whoa," Pepper said again.

"It was simply reflection," Jean Grey said to her, her usual soothing tone having returned with the light. "Fear is the real killer, fear is the real enemy. That's what the professor wants you to learn."

Pepper rubbed her hand, seeing no marks, or even redness from the pressure she had felt.

"Wow, that really hurt," she said, looking to the two for some confirmation of what she had just experienced.

"It was all in your mind," Jean answered back.

Pepper was not sure exactly what this _lesson_ was supposed to be about, but she knew one thing for sure; she would never stick her hand into anything that she could not clearly see the inside of, ever again.

Pepper stayed a little while longer, catching Jean Grey up on all that had happened with Team Iron Man since she had left the Tomorrow Academy. After a _thank you_ for having listened to her and a hug goodbye, Pepper left the school and began her ride back to New York City. She was not sure if the trip had helped her at all, but she had to admit that she felt somewhat calmer about what she had seen earlier… and about her anxieties over Tony.

As she watched her friend ride away, Jean Grey furrowed her brow as she thought over all that Pepper had shared with them. Knowing that she had earned some free time away from the estate, Jean told Professor Xavier that she was going out for a while and then called a cab to pick her up at the front gate.

xxxXXXxxx

Tony Stark sat alone in his personal lab at Stark International, having not been able to get any work done at the armory, as seeing the armor had reminded him of the time Happy had piloted it for a day and had ended up accidentally saving the city from Unicorn and Killer Shrike. He knew it would not last forever, but with Happy's funeral having been so recent, he was grateful more than ever for the decrease in crime around the city. He figured he would need to be away from Iron Man business for a few days, just to realign himself.

He heard his door open and looked up to see Rhodey enter.

"Hey," his best friend said to him, closing the door and walking over to the adjacent empty chair, taking a seat.

"Hey. Got tired of dealing with it all alone?" Tony asked. Rhodey shrugged and then nodded slightly.

"Yeah, I guess. I just keep asking myself _why_ whenever I'm alone, so I figured I'll hang out with you and Pepper until I let it go past me, and then I can get over it and move on."

Tony nodded to this, opened his mini-refrigerator next to his work desk, and tossed Rhodey a soda, which was easily caught.

"Pepper's not coming over today. She called me and told me she needed to be alone for a while, too. I guess it's hitting her harder than us. She did date Happy for a while, after all."

Rhodey nodded in understanding to that line of reasoning, and then asked a question that he had been wanting to ask since that morning, but had known it was not an appropriate time.

"Did you stop by your mother's grave?"

"Yeah," Tony replied, opening a soda for himself and taking a few gulps. Rhodey gave it a few seconds, then continued.

"This whole thing got you thinking about her? And about what happened when we thought your dad was gone?"

"Of course," Tony looked up along the wall, where there hung a picture of himself at four years of age, smiling at the camera, his mother kneeling down behind him, her arms over his shoulders and her hands linking over his chest, her chin resting atop his head, also smiling at the camera. His father had taken the picture of the two of them only a few weeks before his mother passed away. It was not the last photo of her, but it was the last of the two of them together, and so he had asked his father for that specific one to keep with him in his lab, as a reminder of why he was so adamant about using his genius to make a better world.

"Have you talked with Pepper about it," Rhodey asked. Tony shook his head.

"Not in detail. She knows what happened and she understands, 'cause she went through it, too, with her own mom. But, I think once we all feel OK again I'll probably tell her about it. I'm sure she'll appreciate it."

Rhodey nodded in agreement with his friend and continued to drink his soda, Tony doing the same. The two friends were quiet for a while after that, simply taking in the peace and the company each provided with gratitude.

xxxXXXxxx

Jean Grey walked down the marble hallway of the Morningside funeral home, her footsteps echoing in the otherwise silent air. She had wanted to take a close look at what might be going on at the mortuary after hearing Pepper's tale earlier that day. So, she had decided to do her own investigation, and had arrived in New York City by that evening. She had purchased some flowers before going to the cemetery, so that she could give the appearance of stopping by to visit a deceased loved one, all the while using her psychic and telepathic abilities to try and determine if there was any mutant activity taking place on the grounds.

So far, however, she was not getting anything. Which was strange in and of itself. She knew that people worked here, so she expected to be able to sense human minds nearby, or perhaps mutant minds if Pepper's theory was correct. But she had not detected anything, human or mutant, within the property boundaries of the cemetery, or within the mausoleum itself. She was detecting something, however; something faint, but she could not identify it in any way. It was something she had never felt before and she had absolutely no context for it. While she could not detect the activities of anything that was necessarily sinister, something out of the ordinary was definitely going on behind these walls.

Her eyes moved over the names of the dead that were interred within the marble walls around her, understanding why so many people got the creeps from being in such a location. At one point in time, every person that lay behind the slab of marble that showed their name for the outside world had once been walking around and looking at the world, just like her, with their own thoughts and fears and hopes and dreams. Now, they were entombed here, inert, until the end of time. It was existentially horrifying in its finality.

The quiet of the place was disturbed when she thought she heard a strange sound off to the side; an odd scratching, rustling, rasping sound. Turning her head down one of the many hallways that she passed, which led further into the mausoleum, she thought for a brief second that she saw a piece of brown cloth get pulled along the floor, out of sight. Readying herself to use her telekinesis if necessary, Jean began walking towards the corner that she had seen the cloth disappear around.

As she turned the corner, she came upon a door, over which were engraved into the marble the busts of gods from Greek mythology and lore. The door itself was pure white and looked very sturdy, set into the marble walls. Jean was confident that she could bring it down with her mind if need be, however. Reaching out, she tried the doorknob, fully expecting it to be locked. To her surprise, it twisted in her hand and the door easily opened a small crack.

From that crack, a pure white light, brighter than the sun, shown through and reflected off of the marble walls around her. She could also hear a strange, steady humming sound, like some kind of vibrating machinery was located within the room on the other side of the door, though there was no other sound than that gentle hum. Opening the door even wider, Jean Grey leaned around its edge and looked inside the room.

xxxXXXxxx

The grounds outside the mortuary were empty, as the Morningside Cemetery was closing down for the evening. As such, there were no strollers or passersby near enough to the funeral home to hear the high-pitched scream of a female echo out across the grassy grounds.

* * *

I'm hoping that I can have this story finished in time for Halloween, but if not, I figure that starting it the week before Halloween will make up for it if it should take longer to write and post it all, making it more fitting of the Halloween _season_ than the actual date. Hope it's scary enough for you all, so far.


End file.
